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Union Works 

Engage, Educate, Empower: The Heart of our Union

Local 434 Members Complete Trauma-Informed Training

3/21/2025

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The second cohort of Local 434’s trauma-informed teaching group completed their three day training this week. The Union Response to Student Stress and Trauma focuses on how to better equip educators with  tools, knowledge, and strategies to create a supportive and safe environment for students who may have experienced trauma. The curriculum emphasizes understanding trauma and the impact it has on students’ behavior, emotional regulation, and learning, as well as how to build a safe and supportive environment that fosters resilience. There is also a focus on emotional regulation and self-care for educators.

Notes from members who attended the training:

Caleb Romoser, West Fine Arts/World Language: 
The Trauma-Informed training was a powerful and educational experience for me.  The information that was presented is critical for all educators who truly wish to engage their students with that difficult mix of high expectations and deep care. 

Karl Ware, West Para/Coach: 
Stress/Trauma training is definitely needed. Students' moods change rapidly from day to day. Our District 201 trauma/stress training enhanced our ability to understand people and transcend students' trauma. Group setting helps to show different ways to reach and teach students  . In hostile situations our training taught us options and methods to detox stress and work with students in trauma/stressful situations. We work together and research multiple ways to successfully combat stress and trauma. We learned meditating techniques to actively listen for the mind and heart of the person.  

Jacob Toenjes, West Social Studies: By recognizing strengths and promoting positive coping strategies, trauma-informed educators can help students build resilience, improving their long-term academic and personal success. Ultimately our goal is to help students be ready for the real world.  Helping them build that resilience is another way we can help them achieve success long term.   

Jennifer Lewis, West English: This training was invaluable to my teaching. It's easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day tasks of the job and forget that our students are kids who are already struggling to regulate their emotions, and when trauma is part of their daily lives, they struggle even more. Learning techniques to help my students process and focus was very helpful.

Ashley Mims, West English: I signed up for this training hoping to get some new ideas about how to hold space for my students with trauma, see them as the whole person, all while still holding them to high expectations and maintaining boundaries. This training and the time I had to process with my colleagues provided me with that and so much more. 


Shout out to Tiffany Stellhorn, Nickie Pelch, and Lannette Story who have put in the work to become trainers and led this cohort. (Another shout out to Thomas Gallaher, Christina Roedl, and Kara Schnoeker who led last semester’s cohort!) Thank you to District 201 for partnering with us and providing substitutes for our classrooms as well as lunch!
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PSRP Conference

5/26/2023

 
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Administrative Assistants' Council President Liz de la Torre attended the PSRP conference in April. 

​"For the PSRP Conference, my main takeaway was that all educators, no matter if they are Administrative Assistants, lunch workers, or bus drivers deserve respect.  Respect does not only come in the form of a living wage, but it also should come from supervisors and coworkers.  One of the workshops on the topic demonstrated how supervisors and coworkers can disrespect PSRPs and others through unconscious bias and steps PSRPs can take to positively indicate these biases through assertiveness.  "

Union Response to Students' Stress and Trauma

5/26/2023

 
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Members from all 3 councils and all three campuses spent the March 24 Wellness Day participating in the IFT Trauma Informed Training Session. Here were some key takeaways:
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Kara Schnoeker: On March 24th during the teacher institute, I was fortunate enough to attend the Trauma-Informed Teaching Training Session with colleagues and friends. It is hard to put into words how useful and enlightening the training was. Those of us who attended training were able to collaborate with each other on how to best support our students, our colleagues, and ourselves emotionally. We had really amazing and productive conversations as a whole group and in small groups. I felt like we accomplished so much in such a short period of time, and it sparked some much-needed conversations and assessments on how we respond to different scenarios in the classroom. It is amazing to me how so many of us shared similar thoughts and feelings, but had never discussed them in a group setting. This training was a wonderful experience, and I am very happy that I made the decision to attend.
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Tiffany Stellhorn: 1) I experienced an in-depth hour-long training on how to do a restorative circle. Even though I’ve experienced restorative circles within my classroom, with assistant principals and parents, this training strengthened my ability to create a conducive learning environment. I don’t have a fear or nervousness about the Advisory period next year. 2) Throughout the day, we went into depth of our strengths as a district and our challenges as a district. We realize that only half our staff will read about our experience (and that’s optimistic). We have this Advisory Period next year where we have no idea where/what to expect. However, at this training, we connected as colleagues. I gained friendships and trust with others I never would’ve done on my own. It re-filled my “cup. 3) The overarching goal I feel now is how can we as a union help each other. Towards the end of the day, we were left with the “Now what?” Those of us in the training created a Google Chat/Space to start sharing ideas of how we continue. Next step so far is to attend the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Summit on June 8th.

Union Leadership Institute: Building and Sustaining Power

5/26/2023

 
Members attended this professional development in January. Here are some of their key takeaways:

Jeff West: "We learned how to begin and sustain union engagement at the local level.  Participants also were given an opportunity to meet other active members in other local teachers' unions." 
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Chelsea Kilzer: "I learned how I can be more involved in the protection of my rights as a public educator while also making sure that every student has access to FAPE."

Tiffany Stellhorn: "When we want change, we need numbers backing the idea. In order to get the numbers, we need to track involvement. We gained ideas on how to ensure information gets out to the membership and how to have difficult conversations with each other about changes individuals want for the upcoming contract."
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    Strength in unity, power in solidarity.


    ​
    Editor:

    Ashley Mims
    Local 434 Secretary since 2017 and educator in District #201 since 2011.

    Contributors:


    Lucas Spriggs
    Lucas Spriggs is the author of the Union Works newsletter, which includes posts in three series: "Get Organized," "Get Represented," and "Get Informed."

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